Beauty Part 926

Ask me if I'm tired of thinking about this subject.

No, go ahead. Ask.

I am.

It's not completely my fault, really. 

I flipped on the television one night to have something to listen to as I cooked dinner. The show "Toddlers and Tiaras" was on. I had heard about this show and was mildly intrigued. 

Well. Let's just say that I froze, horrified, in the middle of the kitchen with a spatula in mid-air within two minutes of the show starting.

I don't have time or space here to say everything that was wrong with that show and the parents on it.

But here's the thing. There was this dad who was a "pageant dad." And yes, it was as disturbing as it sounds.

But he actually said this: 

"If my wife and my daughter were in a beauty pageant together, my daughter would win, hands down."

I flipped around with my spatula and said out loud, "OH NO HE DIDN'T JUST SAY THAT..."

I was devastated for his wife.

She had spent a few seconds earlier talking about how she had once been a "beautiful girl" but had "let herself go." She said she knew first hand how much easier life was when you were beautiful. She had seen the difference in how people treated others based on outward appearance in each of her life situations.
 

It broke my heart. 

So when her husband, Mr. "I-used-to-be-in-the-Navy-so-now-I'm-using-all-that-I-learned-there-to-help -my-daughter-succeed-in-the-beauty-pageant-world" said that his daughter would win in a beauty contest against his wife, my heart broke for her.

I wanted to grab him by is rather large XL tee shirt collar and yell at his balding head that his wife needed to be the most beautiful thing in the world to him. That she needed to be loved for her beauty no matter how much it had changed over the years. That she needed to be held in high esteem for the way that she looked, whether or not it compared to her daughter's beauty.

I was mad. 

Maybe this is why I can't stop thinking about this issue. It seems that everywhere you look, someone or something is telling you how you could look better or thinner or less old or compete with the teenagers who haven't had time march across their face. Or rear ends.

And apparently I'm not the only one that thinks so. 

I was watching one of my guilty summer pleasures just a day later, although I hate to say it since this particular episode put this show dangerously close to getting marked off my viewing list. I'm putting it on probation, because no matter how much I love a show, if it makes my spirit cringe, I know it's gotta go.

Anyway.

I hate to link this site here, but I'm going to anyway. This was on the now "on probation" show:

Just the Way You Are
 

And fine, I'll admit that I cried, for that sweet lady, because the words of this song expressed to her husband what she wanted and needed to hear from him.

So maybe that's why I can't stop thinking about women and their inability to stop thinking about how they look. It's pervasive. It's everywhere. 

I'll remind myself that whatever I happen to maybe have beauty-wise is hopefully found in my love and passion for Christ. He is my Creator, and He made no mistakes in creating me. {{Despite my new favorite quote, "No one else wanted this laugh, so God gave it to me."}} Hopefully my love for Him shines on me, and our beautiful and intimate relationship reflects in my countenance.  Hopefully I will stand strong against what this world says is beautiful and stay firmly rooted in my devotion for Him. 

That's what important. That's what's real. And that's what's eternal.